


Life Partner

by LadyAJ_13



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angel Marriage, Awkward Conversations, Creepy angel staring, M/M, Season 6 or 7-ish?, even if he pretends not to be, sam is invested in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-27
Updated: 2014-05-27
Packaged: 2018-01-26 19:03:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1699199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyAJ_13/pseuds/LadyAJ_13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not as if there's anything weird about Castiel appearing in their motel room in the small hours of the morning. Castiel and Dean have a Conversation (capitalisation necessary).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life Partner

**Author's Note:**

> Rated for Dean's potty mouth. Also previously posted on Livejournal.

It's not as if there's anything weird about Castiel appearing in their motel room in the small hours of the morning. In fact, that's not what made him sit up so suddenly, sleep wrenched from him as surely as if the door had been beaten down by a vengeful spirit. There was something off. Something wrong with hi- with Castiel.

"Cas?" Dean rubbed his hands over his face slowly, wiping away the last vestiges of sleep. Castiel didn't reply, just stood in the corner like a statue. "Seriously, Cas, what is it?"

"It's nothing, Dean. Go back to sleep. I was just -" Castiel seemed unsure for a minute, rolling an unfamiliar phrase around in his head before deciding to go ahead - "checking in."

"So you're 'checking in'," if he wasn't so tired, he'd have totally put quotation marks around that one. Slang just didn't sit well with the angel. "Bullshit, Cas, there's something up. Spit it out and we can get working on it. Demons? Ghosts? Should I wake Sammy up?"

"There is no supernatural problem at this time," Castiel paused. "That I know of," he added, ever diligent.

"Then how come you're setting off my warning buzzers?" Dean groaned, smashing a fist into his pillow a few times and flopping back down. Castiel looked alarmed. "It rearranges the filling, Cas, I'm not angry," Dean explained gently. Castiel has been around so long now that it was easy to forget, sometimes, that he still didn't understand life on earth. Certainly not, even after his brief foray into humankind, the kind of problem like a lumpy pillow.

"Your - buzzers?"

"Yes, something's wrong, I can feel it. If you'd just tell me what it is I can fix it or dismiss it and get back to sleep," Dean may have had his hands over his eyes, but he could still sense Castiel walk closer and primly sits on the chair near the bed. Maybe he has picked up a few things about being human, then.

"I apologise, I did not mean to cause you stress. It is an angel problem, but not an issue you can assist me with. I merely wished to remove myself from heaven for a short time."

"So you came visiting," Dean can't help the smile that crosses his face at that.

"I do not have many other places to go. Unless I went to Bobby Singer's, but he would no doubt dislike my presence in his bedroom."

Dean full on laughed at that, forgetting for a minute the brother sleeping one bed over. "Why Cas, I think you're learning. Seriously dude, come over any time." He glanced at the cheap bedside clock. "Even if that time is 3.15am."

It only took a few seconds of Dean drifting back into sleep to remind him that the angel never actually let on what was bothering him. He no longer seemed as on edge as when he appeared, and Dean had almost forgotten the reason for the early morning social call. "So how come you had to get away?"

Castiel looked over at him. He had been staring straight ahead, eyeing the blank television with his usual intense stare. Dean kind of wished he's been focused on him, then shook himself mentally. It's obviously a case of too little affection (read: hook-ups) when he starts to miss that creepy focus. Tomorrow night, he needs to get to a bar.

"There has been talk, in Heaven," Castiel began, haltingly. It's an unusual way for him to talk about Heaven; most of the time he only seems uncertain when discussing the finer points of human life. Even after the cheeseburger incident, for instance, he doesn't seem to quite grasp the human desire for food. "It's fuel," he insists on telling Dean every time he drools over a pizza or meaty sandwich. "How can it be so - so enticing?"

Dean is wrenched back to the present by Castiel's voice. He seemed to have worked out what to say. "They are re-organising, after the Apocalypse. With Michael gone and Lucifer caged once more, there have been disagreements. Everyone is set on a more ordered heaven, however. A settled plane."

"What does that mean?" asked Dean.

"They wish for angels to - I think you put it - 'settle down'. An angel with a tie to another is more likely to remain," another quick pause, "on the 'straight and narrow'. They will not wish to cause trouble if they risk bringing another in to the battle."

Dean shook his head, physically this time. There must still be the fog of sleep about his brain, because Cas can't actually be saying what he thinks he saying. If so, all of Heaven has gone mad. "They want to marry, or something?"

"That would be the human equivalent, yes."

"Well fuck them! I know I'm not Mr Commitment or anything, but they can't just force people - or, angels, I guess – into relationships."

"They already have. The law was passed by an overwhelming majority-"

"Bu-"

"Heaven is scared, Dean. They have seen their world almost shatter, and now they are without their leader. They wish for normality, and see this as their way of restoring it."

"You can't mean - they just? - I'm sorry. Has Heaven gone collectively mad?!" Castiel was quiet. His gaze, focused so intently on Dean for the past few minutes that he could feel it, like a slight itch just under his skin, had moved back to the television. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to - I don't know, diss your friends, or anything." There is silence for a few seconds, while Dean works up the courage to ask the question he really wants to. "Have they - you know, set you up, with anyone?"

Castiel turned once more, the cock of his head only just betraying his inquisitiveness. "They are allowing us to choose our own life partners. However, there is another who has been recommended. Why?"

Dean blushed slightly, hoping the dim light in the room covered it. "I guess if you get married you won't be around so much, that's all."

"My duties would be more Heaven-based, that is true," Castiel's stare became harder, almost piercing. For the first time in a long time it made Dean uncomfortable. "Technically, I do not have any Earth-bound duties, however. They finished before the Apocalypse did."

"So what does that mean?"

"I do not understand."

There is a groan from the other bed and Sam flumped himself over to face them, grumpily. "He means he'd rather see your face every day, Cas. He means he mopes around like a kicked puppy when you stay away, and the last thing he wants is for you to get married to some angel girl."

Castiel looked blindsided, and for a second Dean just drinks in the unfamiliar expression on his angel's face. Then, Sam's words sink in, and he flushes again, mouth dropping open. "Sam!" he hissed, angrily, as if that will help Castiel not hear.

“Is this true,” Castiel spoke softly, as if to keep the all too public conversation between themselves. “I can- I could avoid Emael…”

It’s his one chance, Dean knew that. Castiel had already pushed his luck with the other angels, and if he got this wrong, right now, Castiel will go running back to Heaven and – and Emael, whoever that was. Even though he doesn’t want to. He ran away already, and he came here. Maybe he doesn’t know many people on Earth, but it still means something that of the few he does, he sought out Dean. Dean and a grotty motel room in Wisconsin, when he could have done his brooding looking out over Niagara Falls, or down on the Great Barrier Reef.

“It is.” His voice cracked and is barely more than a whisper as it is, but Dean can see Castiel get it. Then he’s gone.

“What?!” Sam sat bolt upright, suddenly involved again after pretending to not be present for the last two minutes. “Where did he-“

Then, Castiel is back. In one hand, he had a bunch of red roses. In the other, a ginormous box of chocolates. Under one arm was a teddy bear, with a purple ribbon round it’s neck and slightly creepy stare.

“I believe it is the human tradition to woo a potential partner,” said Castiel.


End file.
